Parents avoid jail over girl's vegan diet

The Sydney parents of a baby girl fed a vegan diet which left her severely malnourished have avoided jail and instead been sentenced to 300 hours community service.

The pair, who can't be identified for legal reasons, pleaded guilty in 2018 to failing to provide for a child causing danger of serious injury.

They were sentenced on Thursday to an 18-month intensive corrections order in Downing Centre District Court.

The toddler, now aged three, was so malnourished by the time she was 19 months old she didn't have any teeth and looked like a three-month-old.

She also suffered from a preventable bone disease which had caused minor fractures, and was not vaccinated.

The toddler had been fed oats, potatoes, rice, tofu, bread, peanut butter, rice milk and occasionally fruit. She never received nutritional supplements.

Now living with other family members in Queensland, her health has improved but she requires ongoing speech therapy and physiotherapy, still takes drugs and supplements to boost growth and remains physically and mentally below average.